Government Finance Statistics (Central Government) – discontinued

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Abstract

Note: this release has been discontinued in 2016. Content previously available in this release is now available in Government Finance Statistics (General Government).

Government finance statistics (GFS) is a set of concepts and principles developed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) specifically for measuring government financial activity. These concepts and principles allow the entire public sector to be analysed.
That is:

• all levels of government (both central and local government in New Zealand, and state government in countries like Australia and the United States of America).

• all sectors of government (general government, public non-financial corporations, and public financial corporations).

Unlike accounting-based financial statements, GFS is an economic representation of a government's financial activity. It is the IMF's preferred standard for publishing financial statistics on government.